There’s an apocryphal story about a frog in a pan of water
in which the temperature is gradually increased. The frog, not sensing the
danger, is boiled before it leaps to freedom. There’s also the history of the guillotine, which was
supposed to be a more humane way of inflicting capital punishment, but which
became an instrument of state terror, and entertainment for the mob.

Things which would inflict a sense of horror on most people
can be more easily accommodated when they are introduced incrementally.

Abortion for population control, to eliminate the mentally
or physically “unfit”, and for reasons of preserving an affluent or privileged
lifestyle has been supported for over a century by a cadre of abortioneers:
eugenicists, advocates of euthanasia, elitists, radical feminists and
environmentalists, and statists of every stripe, including fascists and
Marxists, but subsequent to World War II, with the massive destruction of human
life, including indiscriminate abortion to meet state objectives (and not just
the Nazis), a subtler approach was necessary, as the great majority considered
a human fetus to be a person and abortion to be a heinous act.

These subtleties began with a call to protect troubled women
from being victimized by back-alley abortionists, a plea that resonated with
many. Next, these abortioneers connected abortion to women’s health, which
could mean anything from a serious heart condition to anxiety attacks or the
blues. Time passed, months and years, and these pleas became demands for legal
abortion at every stage of a pregnancy, and then to more demands for the right
to destroy an infant as it is being delivered.

The fact that many professional men and women: doctors,
psychologists, jurists, and religious leaders, supported abortion influenced
many of the conflicted who forget or ignore the fact that these professionals bring
personal and ideological biases to this issue.

One would think that such “progress” would constitute
success for the abortioneers, but not so fast. The next item on the
abortioneers’ agenda was to require those morally opposed to abortion to pay
for abortions, via health insurance and government programs, revealing that
their agenda is more than just securing legal abortion; it’s about compelling
those who disagree to get on board.

Don't be lulled into thinking there isn’t more to
come, as there is always more to come. In an April 5, 2013 column in the
Washington Post, George F. Will discusses the abortioneers’ desire to have the
legal right to destroy an infant after
it has been delivered and is separated from the mother, stating, “Planned
Parenthood, which receives more than $500 million in government subsidies, is
branching out, expanding its mission beyond the provision of abortions to the
defense of consumers’ rights: If you pay for an abortion, you are owed a dead
baby.”

The abortioneers and their “progressive” allies are also
seeking to abridge the "hate speech" of those opposing abortion. If
the abortioneers have their way, opposing the right to an abortion or opposing
a woman’s right to do anything she wishes with the “product” of her womb, even
a living, breathing infant, would be an actionable offense.

At heart, the abortioneers are cynical materialists
who believe that everything is a zero-sum enterprise; more people means fewer
resources for those who are better equipped to occupy the world, more of the “unfit”
means more societal turbulence, more people effects the affluence of the most
deserving. It’s easy to succumb to these expedient pabulums.

Too bad hardly anyone reads George Orwell anymore. We
are far too busy downloading music and videos, cheering on our favorite teams,
and living the good life: “There was nothing there now
except for a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE
MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.”

Americans ought to consider that the next frog in the
pan may be them.

About the Author

Thomas M. Doran

Thomas M. Doran is a professional engineer, an adjunct professor of civil engineering at Lawrence Technological University, and a member of the College of Fellows of The Engineering Society of Detroit. He is also the author of Toward the Gleam, Terrapin, and Iota (October 2014), all published by Ignatius Press.

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